Forum Moderators: mack
Today I recieved my first check from Google. It was for $153.22. Not much. This is the first time I've gotten a check from them, because I finally broke $100 in a month.
Not much money--but I've already earned enough in July to see another check next month! I've learned a ton, and with the traffic I'm generating about 600 unique visits a day, and about 75,000 page views a month.
I can now begin to consider legitimatly selling banners on cpm.
I am posting this because I want to encourage other beginners that you can build a site and make money off it starting from ground zero, and have a lot of fun along the way.
Of course, I've invested hundreds of hours getting the site to where it is...but I followed the basic rules here, start with a topic or hobby you enjoy. Get a newsletter going. Content is king, etc.
Quick recommendations:
1. Use PHP to dynamically build pages. Save yourself the trouble of SSI's and shtml.
2. Don't use convoluted methods for designing your site. If you are trying to do something basic and are having a hard time finding information on how to do it--you're probably headed in the wrong direction.
3. Don't expect to get rich quick, you'll only fraustrate yourself.
4. Choose a topic you truly enjoy. My site is a band fan site, and I've used it to get backstage at shows and exclusive crew, a site can mean a lot more than adsense earnings.
5. Use webmasterworld! There are so many pros around here its like cherry-picking good ideas.
6. Don't be intimidated by big guys in your niche. My site took flack early on, but not any more.
7. Learn CSS. Really, learn it. Don't gloss it over early on. Sit down and learn it. Take Macromedia's free tutorial.
A lot more...stick with it.
kp
2. Don't use convoluted methods for designing your site. If you are trying to do something basic and are having a hard time finding information on how to do it--you're probably headed in the wrong direction.
Boy, that's the truth. I've been doing web work (hobby, then for a living, now for a nonprofit) for about 8 years now and I'd have to say that this is great advice. I still sketch out everything by hand before I start coding - I even sketch out all of my tables and cells. Makes it easier for me to start a project. Otherwise I start trying some complicated stuff and it never ends up working.
